SOCIAL MEDIA PR POWER GUIDE

SOCIAL MEDIA PR POWER GUIDE A Busy PR Pro’s Handbook for Increased Visibility through Social Networks, Self-Publishing and New Media Social Media • Corporate Blogging and Micro-Blogging Blogger Relations • Podcasting and Vodcasting • Corporate Web Video RSS • Search Engine Marketing • New Media Resources Directory Directory of Top Bloggers • PR Case Studies in New Media A Special Report from Bulldog Reporter SOCIAL MEDIA PR POWER GUIDE A Busy PR Pro’s Handbook for Increased Visibility through Social Networks, Self-Publishing and New Media Everything practitioners need to know about: Social Media Corporate Blogging and Micro-Blogging Blogger Relations Podcasting and Vodcasting Corporate Web Video RSS Search Engine Marketing By Richard Carufel with Megan Cassidy Welcome to the Revolution in PR Technology: Yours for the Seizing Some are calling it PR 2.0. Like the coinage Web 2.0, it implies that we've just now reached the second iteration of our application. I like that image, because public relations is indeed undergoing a profound, qualitative transformation. New technologies—like social media, blogging, search engine marketing, corporate video on the web, and RSS—are changing the very assumptions that PR people have made for generations about their craft, particularly about media relations. It's as if somebody rubbed the magic lamp, and the cyber-genie leaped out and gave us the power to create our own media, publish and broadcast our own news, address our customers and prospects directly, have one-on-one conversations with customers day and night, and listen in on clients as they talk among themselves about us. This dramatic expansion of PR capability obviously opens up tremendous opportunity for us as a profession. In some ways, it's a new world. But there's also the real and imminent danger that PR will fail to seize this magical new power.We didn't, for example, take control of the corporate website, as we rightly could have. Now we have to be content with the single button on the corporate homepage called ?Newsroom,Ç and most PR departments don't do a very impressive job even with that scrap of responsibility. If public relations practitioners do seize this day, we can have it all:The CEO (or engineering or customer service) blog, the corporate podcast and online video program, an RSS feed to all our shareholders, a customer bulletin board, and a press release read by more information-seeking citizens than if it had been picked up on the front page of The New York Times. This handbook is a tool for helping you exploit these new technologies. It's a concise, passionately practical guide that in just over 100 pages lays out the current case for blogs, podcasts and online video, SEO and RSS, and social media. It also gives you up-to-the-minute instructions for the most effective and most costeffective methods and resources for putting these technologies to work. Finally, it's an excellent, high-level resource for explaining to your senior management what this brave new world is all about . . . and why they will want to devote significant budget to it. Because you're reading this handbook, it's obvious you're committed to taking advantage of the professional bounty laid before us. I wish you luck as you pursue these new technologies and as you help define their optimal usage. Please continue to let us at Bulldog Reporter know how we can help you continue to stay on top . . . how we can continue to help you succeed. Jim Sinkinson Publisher, Bulldog Reporter Oakland, California Table of Contents Chapter 1: The Revolutionary Impact of New Media on Public Relations— And Why You Can’t Miss the Boat 1 1. Opportunity: PR is poised to take the lead in integrated marketing 2.Takeaways: How are new media altering consumers’ dissemination of news? 3. Embracing the blogosphere: Key benefits for your company 1 2 4 Chapter 2: Adding “Blog Relations” to Your Media Relations Strategy 1. Differentiating between traditional media and new media 2. Monitoring the blogosphere with Technorati and other services 3. Getting involved—Reaching out to bloggers to move your message 4.What motivates a blogger? 5.The surefire way to gain bloggers’ respect-post on their blogs and engage 6. Key strategies for establishing relationships with bloggers 7. Best practices: How to work with bloggers 8. Checklist:Tips for approaching bloggers 9. Crisis communications—Using the blogosphere to quell uproar 8 8 9 11 11 13 13 16 18 19 Chapter 3: How to Publish Your Own Blog-and How Your Company or Client Will Benefit 27 1. Benefits of a company blog 2. Setting strategy: Make sure you’re prepared 3. Getting your blog off the ground 4. Best practices:Tips for foraying into the blogosphere 5. Creating killer content 6. Regulating your company blog with employee policies 7. Building traffic to your blog 27 28 31 32 35 38 39 Chapter 4: How to Create and Distribute Compelling Podcasts to Reach Your Target Audience 42 1. Benefits of podcasting for your company 2. Best practices: Planning your podcasting strategy 3. Focusing on content 42 44 47 4. Creating a podcast step-by-step 5. Maximizing your podcast’s visibility 6. Creating an RSS feed file step-by-step 7. Posting a podcast on iTunes step-by-step 8. Evaluating costs, tools and services 48 50 51 53 58 Chapter 5: How to Create and Distribute Web Video to Capture Consumer Interest 1. Best opportunity:You can bypass the limitations of broadcast media 2. Best practices for using Web video as a PR tool 3. Setting strategy—Script out your goals before the camera rolls 4. Choosing the right tools: Getting the best video software for your needs 5. Specs: Getting the best out of your production efforts 6. Generating killer content 7. Maximizing your distribution 8. How to post a video on YouTube step-by-step 61 62 63 66 68 69 71 74 74 Chapter 6: Optimize Your Content with RSS and Search Engine Optimization 1. Expand your relationship-building with RSS 2. Benefits of RSS:Why do you need a feed? 3. How to set up an RSS feed 4. How to subscribe to a news aggregator (RSS feeder) 5. Facilitate your team’s input by starting a wiki 6. Overview of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 7. Scoring media coverage by using SEO 8.The building blocks of SEO—Keyword tagging 9. Key strategies for placement of keywords in your release 10. Distributing your content on the Web 78 78 78 80 82 83 85 86 88 92 93 Chapter 7: The Emerging Importance of Social Media as a PR Tool 1.Opportunity — Why You Should Be In the Conversation 2. Setting Yourself Up for Success — Establish Internal Ownership, Allocate Resources and Self-Evaluate 3. Best Practices:Tips for Integrating Yourself Into the Conversation 96 97 99 102 4. Setting Strategy — Understanding Myriad Methods of Outreach •Facebook: Everyone’s social network •LinkedIn:The professional’s social network •Twitter:The gateway social network 5. Locating niche networking sites: How to use a social network to find your social network 6. Implementation: Integrating Social Networking Into Your Routine 7. Case Studies: Social Networking Done Right 8. Doing It Right: Opportunities for Traditional PR on Social Media Networks 9. Measuring Success:Tracking the Effectiveness of Your Networking Appendix 1: New Media Lingo—Dictionary of Terminology Appendix 2: New Media Resource Guide Appendix 3: Blog Directory for Top Editorial Beat Appendix 4: Bonus Coverage—Reports From the Front Lines Sources used in this report 104 104 110 113 115 118 120 121 124 126 130 140 159 195 7 1 The Revolutionary Impact of New Media on Public Relations—And Why You Can’t Miss the Boat The explosive emergence of Internet tools such as social media networks, blogs, vodcasts, video blogs (vlogs),Web video, and other new media has revolutionized the consumer experience in an unprecedented way. Not since the halcyon days of media, when Woodward and Bernstein catapulted the importance of journalism to an unprecedented level—and inspired a politically and socially concerned new generation to foray into the suddenly glamorous profession—has the voice of the people been so resounding.With more than 50 million people actively using these tools for business and pleasure, the full impact of digital media on the communications industry is yet to be fully known. But thanks to a wealth of undeniable benefits—with immediacy, visibility, and, for better or worse, credibility topping a virtually endless list—nowhere will this impact be felt more than in the PR profession. The public relations industry has a huge opportunity to become the champion of this new communications channel. In fact, PR pros have to take the plunge and become crusaders for this endeavor.“In many ways, we missed the boat on Web site businesses and a whole industry grew up around us.We’ve adapted to it, but we missed out on our chance to take the lead,” says Makovsky & Company president Ken Makovsky, who also authors the “My Three Cents” blog (http://threecents.blogspot.com/).“But now we have a content-focused communications channel that we really need to become crusaders for.We have an opportunity to be in the vanguard.” “It’s the true fulfillment of public relations,” he adds.“And being an advocate and a champion of this approach is going to be extremely fulfilling—both for companies and the audiences they’re trying to engage with.” But this golden opportunity does not come without a price. Namely, PR pros must do what was previously unthinkable: relinquish control of their craft—especially when engaging in the explosive blog community, which has morphed into a communications universe all its own: the blogosphere. Opportunity: PR is poised to take the lead in integrated marketing Luckily for the public relations industry—which has been built on the foundation of credibility that new media embrac—this consumer-fueled communications channel provides a picture-perfect opportunity for traditional PR to expand into a messaging force far more powerful and influential than advertising. “Corporations have to realize that customers are already talking about them in blogs,” offers Peppercom managing partner Steve Cody.“They’re already talking about the company, the service and the products.When they’re done right, blogs enable a company to join the discussion. But based upon what we’ve found and 1 who we’ve surveyed, a lot of companies aren’t doing it right—they're putting out what is little more than brochureware.The big risk is rushing headlong into blogging and podcasting and other new media without thinking through the image and reputation implications.” The ad industry is inherently hamstrung by its inability to impact reputation and image, thanks in part to the ingratiating reluctance with which consumers now respond to that group’s one-way delivery vehicle. Nevertheless, there’s often competition, to an extent, between the marketing side of the house and the PR side. But PR professionals are in an excellent position because they have always been great storytellers who educate people. PR pros are telling, not selling.That is a key component on the Web—especially given the user’s control over the medium. “Public relations does have a tremendous opportunity to really lead the discussion in the digital area because of our reputation and image credentials,” adds Cody. But don’t get the wrong idea—traditional marketing is not going away by any means. If you think about the traditional marketing channels that you use today— whether it’s advertising, direct marketing, promotions or publicity—they are as much a part of an integrated marketing mix, versus solely what this new medium offers.Traditional marketing offers awareness. Blogging provides you with credibility—and you should look across the whole spectrum before you launch and make sure that one lines up with the other. Takeaways: How are new media altering consumers’ dissemination of news? This changing landscape is having an incalculable impact on PR in particular because media consumers—the targets of most PR campaigns—are becoming more sophisticated. Regardless of the form your media outreach takes, consider the following points: 1. News consumers have become more c ynical and distr usting of spin “A key fundamental shift is how audiences are expecting to be communicated to, and that’s what’s most important to understand when you’re getting into blogging and podcasting,”offers GM Director of Global Communications Christopher Barger. (http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/).“The traditional broadcasting messages—the traditional means of doing PR—aren’t necessarily as trusted anymore. Consumers don’t necessarily buy corporate spin, and they don’t want to hear corporate messaging. People want to hear conversations involving real people, talking like real people talk,” he asserts. That's best accomplished in a medium built around new media such as blogging, podcasting and social media..Those are just details.The bigger point, or the bigger thing to keep an eye on, is the shift in audience expectations and how they want to be communicated to. 2. Message control has shifted to consumer s—and away from PR “If we ever did have control of the message, we certainly don’t now,” says Holtz 2 Communication & Technology principal Shel Holtz, who also pens the “a shel of my former self” blog (http://blog.holtz.com/).“The audience is in control of the message and the only way we are going to wield influence through communications is by participating and engaging in the conversation.That is one of the most fundamental notions of blogging.A blog is not just another channel through which you can talk down to an audience from the summit—it’s a channel that allows you to participate in the conversation,” he says. “Tied to that, you have to be monitoring the blogosphere and engaging in blogs where your organization is mentioned,” Holtz adds.“It doesn’t have to be your own corporate blog—you can participate in other blogs. For example, when Dell announced its widespread battery recall, we had Dell representatives participating in blogs that have been discussing it—very effectively, too.” Although it’s true that blogs are largely a personal medium so far, this is changing quickly. It’s certainly a heartier B-to-C medium today.The B-to-B marketplace is developing much more slowly, but it’s developing—and any company that chooses to not get involved does so at its own peril. 3. Content is still king—but accessibility is media’s new emperor User-generated content is only as good as the information you relay and how easily you make it available to your audience. So this paradigm shift is more about making the information available to the audience in a very concise, easy-to-use and digestible way—and blogging, podcasting, video casting and other new media meet that criterion. 4. New media call for relationship-dr iven outreach and sharpened reactions “We’re no longer in the luxurious world where a story breaks and it becomes tomorrow morning’s news,” offers Communicano, Inc. founder Andy Abramson, who authors the “VoIP Watch” blog (http://andyabramson.blogs.com/voipwatch/). “Consider what I call the five Cs: community, content, commerce, communication and continuity. Blogging, podcasting and video casting all provide you with the ability to be more intimate with—and more responsive to—your audience,” he says. “We’re now in a world of what I like to call FedEx journalism, and in order to be responsive to the needs of the community, meaning your audience, you have to be able to provide that information before or immediately during the time the news breaks,” adds Abramson.“Sometimes these stories break without anybody on the PR team or even management knowing, and they’re forced to respond after the fact. But in order to respond appropriately, you have to have the tools, the tactics and the techniques available to you.” “The old-school paradigm was likely price, place, product, and promotion, which are the four Ps of marketing,”Abramson continues.“Everything always fell into the promotional mix—but that has changed radically. New media tools change the whole paradigm of relying on other people to tell your story.They allow you to tell your story better, and to be a part of the whole citizen journalism or populist journalism movement going on out there.” 3 Therein lies the importance for PR—message marketing to audiences of all kinds is on the verge of a revolutionary sea change. In many cases, people don't even know they’re reading blogs— they just want information. So far, the impact has been tremendous yet subtle.“There are a lot of surveys about who reads blogs, and I would maintain that most people don’t know they’re necessarily reading blogs,” asserts Shel Israel, who writes the “ItSeemsToMe” blog (http://seems2shel.typepad.com/).“They go to Google searching for something and, because of how search works, blogs get more prominence on any topic before a traditional static website does. People go there, they get the information they want, and they might even keep coming back to it.They may have no clue that they’re on a blog.” Nevertheless, a new breed of information consumer has emerged.There’s no doubt that certain industries and cultural niches are experiencing much of the overall effects of blogs as of 2009. If your client works in technology, either personal or enterprise computing, blogs are important. If your customer is in politics, it’s obviously extremely important. If your customer is a use market, blogs are extremely important. If your customers are middle-aged and you’re not talking about something that’s particularly connected to politics or technology, blogs are something you want to keep your eye on, but they may not be your biggest priority—at least not yet. Embracing the blogosphere: Key benefits for your company Recognize all that blogs can do for your company or client by considering these benefits: 1. Blogg ing allows you to engage your c lients and customer s in a two-way dialogue The dialogue that new media allow between messenger and audience represents both the virtually unlimited opportunity and the most harrowing challenge for PR pros, because it necessitates keen brand awareness—of the good and the not-sogood. “We’re transitioning from a way of thinking that was traditionally one-way storytelling—packaging a message and getting it out in a one-way manner,” says Paul Torrey, former president of sales and new-product development for On the Scene Productions.“All of these newer emerging technology opportunities are distinct opportunities to facilitate a dialogue, versus the old way of thinking, which is one- 4